Real Talk : In my time on Instagram professionally, I’ve seen some BAD business owner bios.

Bios that barely say anything, or worse, bios that say all the wrong things.

Business bios that say things like “I love coffee, The Bachelor + weekends reading at the library.”

To those bios I say, WHO EFFING CARES.

Call me selfish, but as a potential customer or client, I want to know how your business helps ME, not be forced to read a laundry list of your boring hobbies.

(Not that The Bachelor, reading, or coffee is boring- I love all of those things, TBH)

My point is— your audience is not going to be interested in giving you their hard earned money simply because you share a common love for caffeinated beverages + reality tv.

Sure it’s great to be relatable, but save that stuff for your actual posts.

When it comes to your bio— those 150 precious characters— you need to get to the point. Tell it to me straight. What’s in it FOR ME?

If you think about it, your bio plus the last 9-12 images on your feed might just be the only shot you have at convincing someone to follow you, sign up for your email list, book your services, or buy your products.

People have like an 8 second attention span. Less than a flippin’ goldfish.

So—you gotta’ make it count.

Now let me ask you this…

If I was to come across your profile RIGHT NOW, would I immediately know who you were, what your business did for me, and what you wanted me to do next?

Does your bio have INTENTION?

What I mean by that is, does it serve a greater purpose for your business? Is it thoughtful in regards to your goals?

Once you’ve explained what you do, for whom you do this for… what do you want to encourage those ideal followers to do next?

When we employ any tool for or business, (like a social media platform), we should be intentional about how we see it helping us reach our bigger goal. If you’re just trying to gain followers for the sake of having a lot of followers— this is probably where I can leave you. #byefelecia

But, if you want to grow your business, by monetizing your Instagram audience, you need to know what that process will look like.

And it all begins with your bio.

So, you’ll need to decide. Do you want to :

Grow your email list

Highlight a blog post or video

Build Brand Awareness

Sell a product or service

[ insert other greater purpose here ]

Once you know your intention for using Instagram for your business, you can then add in a specific CTA, or Call To Action, that points followers in that direction.

Let me give you a quick example:

Let’s say that you sell a fitness product + you want to grow your email list with potential customers.

You decide to offer a 10% coupon to all new subscribers.

You could use your Instagram bio to share this coupon + build your list with interested peeps. This is your current intention for using the platform to, in turn, grow your business.

So, your bio might look something like this:

AWESOME FITNESS PRODUCT — (This is who you are/name of your business )

We help you achieve real results, in half the time. — (This is what you do for me )

Link to sign up — (This link takes a follower to a sign up page, which is how people get their coupon + you get their email ) #winwin

Ya’ feel me?!

The bio is seriously SO important to your overall profile. So, my advice is to take the time to really think through your intentions for using this platform + then make that very clear within your bio. MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Have some fun + play around with your bio this week. Share it with your peers + get their opinion on it. You could even have them try to answer those questions, (Who are you? Who is this for? What do I do next?).

BONUS: If you want to get a little crazy, (the good kind of crazy), and use your bio to share multiple opt ins, more products, service offerings, blog posts, etc — you should check out this post, it’s about my favorite bio “upgrade” EVER. Seriously, it’s a profile game-changer.

Small Talk Social

Small Talk Social is a full-service boutique social media agency for lifestyle brands. We work with the fashion, beauty + premium food/beverage industries to create custom content, manage social media growth + engagement, and partner with influencers to accelerate your brand awareness.